Now that more than 70 years have passed since the War of Resistance Against Japan, our generation was born in an era of peace, and has not experienced war, turmoil, or even starvation. But around us we often hear people of the older generation talking about that dark time and the crimes committed by Japanese imperialism in this part of China.
From September 18, 1931, when the Japanese army launched the "918" incident, the 14-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression began, and after the Japanese army occupied Shenyang, it successively occupied the three northeastern provinces. However, Japan was not satisfied, and then extended its claws to North China, and from May 1936 onwards, it continued to increase its troops and provoke wars in North China.
On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army was exercising near the Lugou Bridge in the southwest of Beiping, and on the grounds of a soldier, they asked to enter wanping county to search, and they were struck by words, and then the Japanese army shelled wanping city. The July 7 Incident was provoked and an all-out war of aggression was launched.
Every time the Japanese army occupies a place, it will build a turret, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, when our army's weapons were backward, it was a headache to face this kind of turret, and in the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japan, this kind of turret played a miraculous effect on the battlefield in China. That's why the Japanese army built so many turrets.
The so-called turret is the kind of high bunker with gun holes around it that can be seen and fired. Most of them are made of bricks, triads and wood. The turret was a very advantageous defensive structure in war, which could be very effective in stopping the attacking side from advancing. Usually, a searchlight is also built on the roof of the building for inspection at night.
However, a very important problem was involved, that is, most of China at that time was indeed extremely backward, and many places did not even have electricity. So where did the Japanese get their electricity from? We often see some artillery towers in modern anti-Japanese dramas, and at night, the lights are bright, and the various sentries are also heavily guarded. In the end, is the Japanese army's special power generation method, or is it the program effect of the anti-Japanese drama?
This matter should start from the ruins of the Zaozhuang Cannon Tower. The place name Zaozhuang sounds a bit rustic, but in fact his name is confusing and misleading. In the 1930s there was a famous Chung Hsing Coal Mine in this area, which was occupied by the Japanese army in 1938 and controlled by Mitsui Corporation. Zhongxing Coal Mining Company was a very modern mining base in China at that time, so on the sign of the Zaozhuang Gun Tower site, there will be a description of "Zhongxing Company Wall and important parts of the Zaozhuang Outer Wall are built with turrets and pulled up the power grid". Since mining production required electricity, ZTE Company in Zaozhuang had many power facilities, so ZTE's generators at that time also had the ability to power the searchlights in the turret.
The Beijing-Tianjin region and individual cities in the northeast and north China have a good industrial base, and there are power plants that can ensure the operation of high-power searchlights, so a small number of gun towers with searchlights are built in individual large cities or major cities. However, most of the turrets in the fields were built for sweeping purposes, and they were temporary strongholds, not even generators, let alone searchlights. The turrets were illuminated with oil lamps at night, just like in ordinary villages. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that searchlights were installed on the Japanese artillery towers.
According to historical records, the captured Japanese artillery oil lamps had an oil jug and reflectors, which could only concentrate a little light and could not act as searchlights at all.
In fact, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, There was not much oil in Japan, and oil and illuminated lamps were all shortages of materials during the war, and oil was to be provided to military machinery. Many of the Japanese creeps in the turrets were farmers and would not use equipment such as generators at all, so the Japanese army would not equip all the turrets with generators.
Then some people will have a question, why not lead the wires from the township to the turret? Because during the war, wires were also an important strategic material for Japan, and they were reluctant to use them unless they had to, and long-distance transmission of electricity was a very dangerous act, easy to be destroyed, and even if it was established, it was not of much use.
In short, it was impractical to equip every turret of the Japanese army with lights during World War II, which not only required a very high cost, but also was easily destroyed.